lens choice for indoor basketball

My daughter is starting to play basketball, so my wife has volunteered me to take pictures of the team. I've read quite a bit of various posts and have learned quite a bit. However, I have one question about lens choice.

I have a 7D with a 50m 1.4 lens and a 24-105 4L lens (with image stabilisation). Now I'm a bit confused as to whether it's better to shoot with the faster lens (1.4) or a slower lens (better quality) with image stabilisation.

Based on the posts in various threads, I plan to use:

1. ISO of 1,6002. manual exposure (since the court is indoors and evenly lit)3. single point of focus (centre focus point)4. minimum shutter speed of 1/500

Not to rain on your parade, but unless she is playing at a division 1 college arena, your assumption that you will have even lighting is a bit premature. I agree with the premise of shooting manual, but don't be really surprised if the lighting isn't what you thought it was.

The IS means nothing here, so ignore that fact. In most likelihood your f4 lens well be way too slow. You will either have to bump you ISO or decrease your shutter speed. If you are shooting from the ends of the court, action coming toward you, you actually can shoot much slow shutter speeds and have things work out. But baseline access is rare... so I wouldn't plan on it.... though use it if available.

Long story short is that you will likely need to use your 50. With the 50 you will really need to plan your seat well because often it will be too short. You really don't have an ideal lens, but you 50 is the best choice of the two. I prefer an 85 and shooting from the corners of the court when doing high school. In the early days when my son played I used a 24-70 f2.8, and had decent results in high school gyms.

My daughter is starting to play basketball, so my wife has volunteered me to take pictures of the team. I've read quite a bit of various posts and have learned quite a bit. However, I have one question about lens choice.

I have a 7D with a 50m 1.4 lens and a 24-105 4L lens (with image stabilisation). Now I'm a bit confused as to whether it's better to shoot with the faster lens (1.4) or a slower lens (better quality) with image stabilisation.

Based on the posts in various threads, I plan to use:

1. ISO of 1,6002. manual exposure (since the court is indoors and evenly lit)3. single point of focus (centre focus point)4. minimum shutter speed of 1/500

Thanks for your help.

The near-universal choice for a basic basketball lens for indoor available-light photography, is a 70-200mm f/2.8.

Example from a Sigma version.

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However, considering the illumination (or lack of such), in all but the very brightest gyms, you'll find the a 24-105 /f.4 lens (which transmits less light than a f/2.8 lens), will not capture enough light to use the exposure settings listed. That leaves the 50mm f/1.4 lens as the best to use.

The faster lens, while limited in field of view, will handle indifferently-illuminated gyms.

Examples from a similar Canon 50mm f/1.8 II.

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Croasdail wrote in post #14780141Not to rain on your parade, but unless she is playing at a division 1 college arena, your assumption that you will have even lighting is a bit premature. I agree with the premise of shooting manual, but don't be really surprised if the lighting isn't what you thought it was.

Yes, you're right. She's playing with the other elementary school kids in the local gym. To my untrained eye, the light looks even, but no doubt there are brighter and darker patches.

Croasdail wrote in post #14780141Long story short is that you will likely need to use your 50. With the 50 you will really need to plan your seat well because often it will be too short. You really don't have an ideal lens, but you 50 is the best choice of the two. I prefer an 85 and shooting from the corners of the court when doing high school. In the early days when my son played I used a 24-70 f2.8, and had decent results in high school gyms.

Excellent advice. I have a 50m 1.4 and an 85m 1.8, so will experiment with both of them. Shooting from the corner makes quite a bit of sense, because it considerably lowers the likelihood of catching a basketball with the front of the lens. As well, I assume that having the kids not running directly at me will increase the likelihood of accurate focussing.

The pictures I shot earlier don't look sharp at all, but I only shot at 1/250. Going up to 1/500 will hopefully help with the results. No doubt shooting a few thousand pictures and studying the results will create better pictures too...

Yup, 50 and 85 are two good choices. I'd shoot at f2, hopefully at ISO3200 you can get 1/400 or better. That's about what I see for the low end at the gyms I shoot at. Last year I shot with a 50D and 3200 was as high as I felt I could to go.

With the 50 you will want to shoot from closer to the basket, even with the 85, I would be in from the corner.

Even with a f/1.4, don't be surprised if you need to use an ISO higher than 1600 in the dimmest gyms.

Yes, this is an excellent example of what happened this week. As your picture above illustrates, the letters on the uniform looks crisp, but the young man's face isn't as sharp. (Please don't misinterpret this as criticism of your pictures -- it's what happened to my pictures of my daughter's game -- I just don't understand why.)

I wasn't sure if the lack of definition in the eyes and on the face resulted from a too-slow shutter speed. However, you shot the picture above at 1/500. Therefore I wonder if I'm expecting too much from the light in the gym. My other thought is that maybe I'm inadvertently focussing on the wrong part of the player (uniform instead of face).

In any event, I'll definitely use the faster lens. Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question with the excellent examples of pictures.

Yes, this is an excellent example of what happened this week. As your picture above illustrates, the letters on the uniform looks crisp, but the young man's face isn't as sharp. (Please don't misinterpret this as criticism of your pictures -- it's what happened to my pictures of my daughter's game -- I just don't understand why.)

I wasn't sure if the lack of definition in the eyes and on the face resulted from a too-slow shutter speed. However, you shot the picture above at 1/500. Therefore I wonder if I'm expecting too much from the light in the gym. My other thought is that maybe I'm inadvertently focussing on the wrong part of the player (uniform instead of face).

In any event, I'll definitely use the faster lens. Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question with the excellent examples of pictures.

Standard settings for MOST gyms using a 7D and 85mm f/1.8 and a 50mm f/1.4. Then some comments afterward:

Setting: 7D, AI Servo, centerpoint only (the one that looks like this: [o] is best!) and usual sports settings. Either lens set to f/2, shutter speed to 1/640 and ISO setting that ensures proper exposure. Usually we're talking numbers like 1600-2000.

I've been lucky that most gyms in my local school's conference are really nicely lit and even across the floor for the most part.

As someone mentioned, the 50mm is really short and wide. Good for getting free-throw shots and at least one side of the rebounding team in the same shot. The 85mm f/1.8 on a 7D is perfect for everything inside the 3-point line. Good vantage points for using the 85mm is 3' behind the baseline and 3-10' inside the sideline.

Here's a shot from that vantage point with 7D and 85mm f/1.8 lens shot at f/2, 1/640 and probably ISO 1250. Best lit HS gym I've ever shot in:

If I could ask one last question, is there a general ratio for ISO and noise reduction in Lightroom. Because the high ISO resulted in noise, I've found that a luminence noise reduction of 30 has relatively good results. Does that sound about right?

I have three high school sports accounts and I shoot hoops one way: Strobed with a 70-200 and a 24-105. Now you might not have the money for it, but if she starts moving up through the levels and sticks with it. There really isn't a better way to shoot in my opinion.

AusDoug wrote in post #14847435G'day,If I could ask one last question, is there a general ratio for ISO and noise reduction in Lightroom. Because the high ISO resulted in noise, I've found that a luminence noise reduction of 30 has relatively good results. Does that sound about right?

Thanks again to everyone for all your help.

There is no set rule as each sensor type will produce different amounts of noise.

Here is a shot with a 1DMkIV at ISO 10,000 (f/2.8, 1/640):

It would not be close as clean and sharp with a 'lesser' sensor.

Lightroom makes it real easy. Just find your first image that is well exposed and sharp focus, adjust until it looks the best, then sync your color balance, and noise settings and then they are all ready for cropping and other adjustments.

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